Sniper Tag
by tallgeese
Summary: an introspective look at one of the game's most hated characters, but one of my personal favorites:  Cezary Regard.  One shot, light Nadine - Cezary here and there.


**Author's note: **It's so hard to have a favorite character that the majority of fandom despises. XD Oh, who am I kidding? That's the way it always goes for me, in just about every fandom I'm a part of (sans Bleach.) Still, poor Cezary, while undeniably a self-centered racist, tends to be vilified much more than is his due in the world of fanfiction (I mean, come on! He's a Darcsen hater, yes, so are a lot of potential squad seven members, but nothing in his bio hints that he's a homicidal maniac. :P), and as a man who prides himself on understanding characterization, I thought I'd play the devils advocate and show you how I see his character. The characterization provided here is based on his manga portrayal, since it gave him far more development than either the game or the anime, and the story itself takes place shortly after the battle for the bridge early in the story. (since the Kloden chapter was so generously skipped in the manga)

I tend to be shippy with everything I write, but this time around I tried to control that impulse, since this is mostly meant to be an introspective piece on Cezary (though I couldn't help but throw in a little Nadine - Cezory in the end). Admittedly, the manga has me wanting to write an in-depth Cezary x Nadine story something fierce, but I know me, and seldom do I finish stories longer than one shots, so for the time being that plan is on hold. ^^ So ends the note. Please try to enjoy the story! Also note that took away the scene divides I used, so I apologize that the story is such a mess. I'm working to fix it now.

**Sniper Tag**

"...This sucks..." Cezory muttered to himself, dismally. He lay flat on his stomach in a marshy patch of the high grass of the Kloden Wildwood, A green tarp draped over his body so that only the barrel of his rifle lay exposed. The first thing this comment was directed toward was the darkness... Night had fallen two hours ago, and with the dense foliage of the wilderness about him, not even the strongest beam of moonlight could penetrate the trees and ease the strain on his sight. He was desert bred, used to the wide open skies of Barious, and this intense darkness put him at a severe disadvantage. He shivered violently, the late March cold a distraction he didn't need as he kept his eye trained on his scope, knowing that if he missed a single movement he would die. Ordinarily this knowledge would annoy him all the more, but this time his opponent was a rival sniper, and he would sooner climb the tallest mountain in Gallia than allow himself to be bested at his own job by the enemy.

"Just give me a sign, bastard. One tiny little hint." He had a vague idea of where his enemy was hiding. His enemy had a vague idea of where he was hiding. It was a stalemate that had lasted for well over an hour.

* * *

"Alright, sevens!" Welkin Gunther announced in his most authoritative voice, "This is a pretty clear area in the woodlands, and it should be out of the range of enemy scouts. We'll set up camp here for the night, and begin our pincer attack on the supply base at dawn."

"'should be' out of enemy range?" Rosie asked, sarcastically. "Don'tcha think you're being a little too optimistic, boss?"

"Maybe so." Admitted Welkin with a laugh, "but we need a little luck on our side this time. The enemy knows we're coming, they just don't know from where, or how many of us." He brought his hand to the back of his head, his brow furrowed in thought. The sun would be setting soon, and it got too dark in the wilderness to mobilize an entire squad. They had no choice but to stop for the day, but there was always the chance they could be scouted out, and if that happened they would be sitting ducks for enemy mortar rounds. There had to be something he could do to protect his squad.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. He ran to the Edelweiss, climbing atop it and pulling out his binoculars.

"Think up another silver bullet, Welkin?" Alicia asked with a smile. She had just emerged from the medical tent, rations and ingredients in her arms. For a moment he acted like he didn't hear her, his eyes trained on forest ahead.

"The cleared paths are under enemy control, if we sent anyone out that way, they'd be spotted for sure..." he said, thoughtfully, "but there are animal trails hidden all over the forest. If we could sneak a sniper around to the other side of the enemy base using those trails, they could harass the scouting patrols, draw attention away from our camp, and do it from far enough away that they could still make it back safely."

"Yeah, a diversion. I see what you're sayin' boss. It's dangerous, but better than leaving everything up to luck." Largo nodded his consent. "I'll go assemble the sniper team."

A few minutes later, Oscar, Cezary, and Marina were standing at attention before the Edelweiss.

"You bellowed, Welkin?" Cezary asked, not bothering to mask his resentment at being awoken from his nap.

"That's right, Cezary. I'm going to have you circle around the enemy base and harass their scouts from the west side of the forest. Our mission is to keep our location hidden until we begin our assault tomorrow."

Cezary's jaw dropped, and he looked to the left and right in awe, before returning his gaze to Welkin and pointing at himself in disbelief.

"W-why the hell do I gotta do that? Marina's a better shot than I am." Upon hearing her name, the despondent young woman shot a cold glare in his direction, which he pointedly ignored.

"You're the leader of the sniper unit, and have the most combat experience of the group." Welkin reminded him. "Oscar and Marina will remain here on watch, and pick off any scouts who happen to come into range of the camp. If we can't succeed in drawing their attention away from us, we'll at least make sure to delay their reporting our position as long as possible."

"...and they're staying here. You want me to go out without a spotter, then?" Cezary's disposition was turning slowly from mild annoyance to anger. Lieutenant Welkin may have proven himself to be a strategic whiz-kid, but he clearly knew jack-all about sniper tactics.

"You're not going out there to fight snipers, Cezary. The worst you'll have to deal with are a few scouts. Once you've harassed a scouting party, that'll be all the distraction we need, you can just slip back into the wilderness and head back home.

There was silence for a moment, and Cezary considered the command. It was true that a few scouts wouldn't be a problem. He could take out an entire party before they even knew the direction he was firing from. It was a huge hassle, but it wasn't like he could really say no.

With a loud sigh, he conceded his attempt at arguing. "I guess orders are orders." He snapped a half-hearted salute, and turned to depart.

"I know I'm asking you to leave a little late. I'm sorry about that." Welkin said, sincerely, "If you can't make it back before the sun sets, just look for glowing insects."

There are certain things that, when a man hears, even if he's begun to leave for a death march, merit his stopping dead in his tracks and turning around to inquire.

"Say what now?"

"There's a species of bio-luminescent insect in these woods that feeds on the droppings of animals. It gets pretty dark inside the woodland, so looking for those bugs can help you keep track of the animal trails you'll be following."

"How... charming." Cezary said, frowning deeply.

* * *

Why couldn't anything ever work out as simply as other people assured him it would? His mind had jerked back to the present, back to the enemy before him, laying unseen but sensed in the dense brush. Unless one of the two of them found the opportunity to move undetected, this would become a battle of endurance, and as annoying as he found it, Cezary wasn't certain he could persevere. His body was partially submerged in water, and the temperature was only barely above freezing. He wasn't sure what sort of makeshift nest his enemy had managed to set up, but it was almost guaranteed to be more comfortable than his.

"Damn I hate the cold..." Cezary mumbled, massaging his hand in a desperate attempt to prevent his trigger finger from going numb. "What the hell happened, Welkin? I could have swore I wouldn't be fighting snipers, much less an imperial ace."

* * *

Things went according to plan all the way up until he found a good vantage point to take out a passing sentry patrol. He was nestled as far from the cleared path as the range of his rifle would allow, waiting patiently for the tell-tale glint of an imperial helmet in the dwindling sunlight. It didn't take long for a scout to come across his field of vision, and he trained his scope on the poor guy's head almost reflexively. Scouts were such easy marks... it made him glad he went out of his way to avoid a front-line job. The imperial soldier came to a stop to survey the surroundings, and Cezory allowed the first knuckle of his finger to take its place on his trigger, when a sudden realization made him pause.

Two men had come in behind the scout, both of them shocktroopers. This didn't alarm him too much, but it was strange for shocktroopers to be used as sentries. Following these two, however, was a much more frightening sight. The first was a soldier adorned in white armor, and Cezary immediately recognized the weapon slung over his shoulder as a long-range sniper rifle. Traveling behind him was a much more imposing figure. The uniform this man wore was far more elaborate, as black as ebony, and covered in decorations and medals. He walked with the proud bearing of a man with authority, and like the lower ranked soldier ahead of him, was armed as a sniper. Cezary recognized the appearance immediately. This man was one of the most elite soldiers in the empire: an ace sniper. He hadn't encountered a sentry patrol... he was about to confront a VIP escort party.

"Damn you, Welkin." Cezary spat between his teeth, trying to decide the best course of action to take. The scouts and shocktroopers were insignificant. Once he made his first move they would immediately fall back to request reinforcements, or they would stay close to the path and try to find him from there. Either way, they wouldn't accomplish anything before he could safely elude their reach. It had to be one of the snipers. There was no way in hell one sniper could outmaneuver two, not when one of them was an ace, with a weapon that was probably superior to his. The armor of the aces was almost always custom, so Cezary had no way of knowing if he'd be able to make a kill with one shot. If he failed to do so, he'd be little better off than if he had simply shot one of the scouts. Best to focus on taking out the support sniper.

For all his panic, his hands were as steady as a rock as he shifted the reticle of his scope from the lead scout to the support sniper. He brought the sight to the level of his head, aiming for the visor of his helmet. This was a purely arrogant gesture on Cezary's part. His rifle was more than strong enough to punch through the helmet itself, and aiming for the center of the head would make the kill easier, but besting rival snipers was quite possibly the only thing that ever motivated Cezary to do his best in anything. Once he had his trick shot lined up, he eased in the trigger. The bullet sped out cleanly, and in the distance he could see the man in white armor get swept to the side from the impact before falling to the ground, dead.

Cezary ejected the shell casing as quickly as he could and tried to draw a bead on the other sniper before the shock wore off, but as one would expect from an ace, the other imperial had instantly discerned the direction of impact for the round that had killed his support, and dived himself into the wilderness for cover. He shouted something Cezary couldn't quite hear to the other soldiers, and they ran off in a hurry.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP!" Cezary shouted, a little more loudly than he intended. He immediately pulled up from his post, knowing that he would have to move, and bait the other sniper along with him, or he'd wind up fighting the entire supply base by himself. He unstrapped his canteen from his belt, and hung it on the branch of a tree in what he hoped would look like an accidental loss of equipment, and then began to slink his way back toward the Squad Seven camp. This began a game of cat and mouse which would last for three hours.

* * *

Cezary's eyes focused again. He began to realize that his reminiscing was being caused by his passing out from the cold, and with a sudden jolt of terror he returned his view to his scope. Had the situation changed? Had his enemy moved? Damn was it cold! There were no tell-tale signs of human movement through the forest, however, and after a brief, panicked attempt to track down the man he had never known the exact location of to begin with he returned to his calm demeanor.

"If only I could afford to move..." Being partially submerged was definitely not healthy, and he had no intention of dying in a place like this. Still, in darkness like this, even the slightest sound of movement could betray his position, and if worst came to worst he could submerge himself completely and wade to a new, safer location... though the idea of getting even wetter made him shiver just to think of it.

"Well if I die, at least I accomplished my mission, right? Not that I really care, but that ought a make you happy, Welkin... but it'll really suck if I go out without telling that Darcsen chick how crazy she is..."

* * *

"Oh! Mr. Cezary, please wait!" A familiar female voice had called for him as he headed to his equipment locker, which he was surprised to find empty. A moment later a tall, dark haired woman burst into his tent, panting and out of breath.

"Y-you, huh." Cezary looked away, his face twisted with equal measures of discomfort and irritation.

"I didn't think you'd have to mobilize until tomorrow, so I thought I had more time. I'm sorry I took your things without asking but here!" The young woman held Cezary's sniper rifle out to him. When he gave her a confused look, she explained further. "I cleaned and maintained it for you. The militia has been moving nonstop since squad seven was formed, so I didn't think you had time to perform maintenance yourself"

"I see... well, um... thanks, Nadine."

He took the weapon from her with a shaky hand and looked it over. He didn't approve of his things being touched by one of... them, but thanks to Marina, he was stuck with an undeserved sense of gratitude from Nadine that he couldn't quite bring himself to shatter.

"I know, it's kind of customary for a girl to repay her debts with cooking, but as an engineer, I thought I'd do what would be most useful to you, y'know."

"You don't owe me anything, really." Cezary said coldly, suddenly more eager than ever to depart on his mission. He strapped his weapon and slung it onto his back, moving toward the door.

"Take this, too..." She reached into the pocket of her uniform and pulled out what looked to be a grenade. "It's a flash bomb. The engineers were tinkering with them, if you're caught out there at night, you'll need it more than we will. Please be careful."

"Just what difference does it make to you whether I'm careful or not?" Cezary responded, not quite as venomously as he'd intended.

* * *

Again his eyes focused, but this time his thoughts remained with the events he had remembered. Christ that woman was infuriating. Why does she have to be that way? All because of that one misunderstanding. If she realized that he was totally prepared to let her die back then would she leave him alone?

His frustration abated, replaced with a new emotion: fear. The foliage ahead of him had been bent in a half circle around him... the imperial sniper had found him. He heard the footsteps to his side, but didn't both trying to turn his gun to it. He had no time to move, no time to retaliate, in less than a second he'd be dead.

A gunshot resounded, and an intense pain filled his head.

... but he was still alive. He had slid his knees back, allowing his body to become submerged in the swampy water he had been perched in. The bullet had grazed him, he wasn't sure where, but he was alive. The camouflage tarp was a perfect item to hide his sliding beneath the tall grass and slinking through the shallow marsh away from where the other sniper had closed in. He held his breath for four minutes, pulling his body through the dirty water while searching for a sufficiently covered place to emerge. When he finally found a suitable spot, he pulled himself out of the water, gasping for air.

Before he could worry about where the imperial was, he had to assess his own situation. Bringing his hand to his forehead, he felt that the bullet had grazed the right side of his head, cutting a shallow gash in the vein of his temple. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, consistently blinding his right eye.

"Well that sucks." Cezary muttered, hissing in pain. He turned his attention to his rifle, but was amazed to find that it was still in working order, in spite of being submerged in water when he made his escape. Had she found a way to water seal his rifle as well? He smiled wryly. Why couldn't that woman realize the unit would be better for her without him in it?

He had his life, he had his weapon, but he was now completely soaked and bleeding steadily. He no longer had the luxury of patience that an effective sniper cannot function without. He had to think quickly. If his opponent went to where he abandoned his tarp to confirm the kill, he could pick him off with ease... but this guy was no amateur, and there was no way he'd emerge from cover without more solid proof that he'd hit his mark.

So then, what to do? Cezary looked at his new surroundings, some of the glowing insects Welkin had advised him about were flitting about on the other side of the marsh... if an animal trail was there, he could possibly use it to flank his enemy... but how would he force him out of hiding? The idea came to him almost instantly.

"Not just once, but twice, huh?" He said, laughing wryly as he pulled the flash bomb from the pouch on his belt. He let his rifle rest against the tree he had been hunched over beforehand, and crawled forward, just a few inches. "You have to have had a radio on you, huh Mr. Imperial ace... if you wanted you could have had this forest crawling with imps hours ago, huh? Well, I guess I could have always drawn you out to where my squad was camped and let the other snipers take you by surprise... maybe we're both too damn arrogant for our own good."

Cezary's breathing was becoming rapid and loud, he recognized it as the onset of hypothermia, and his head was becoming swimmy due to the gash in his temple, but he shook both of these feeling away, pulling the pin on his bomb.

"Let's see which of us turns out to have been the bigger idiot!" He declared quietly, throwing the bomb into the dark wilderness before him. He put one hand on his rifle, and quickly memorized the route to where the crap-eating glow bugs were hovering about, after that, he forced his eyes onto the horizon, and waited... this was the only chance he was going to get.

After six grueling seconds, the bomb detonated, the explosion so rich with light against the utter darkness of the woods that it may as well have been the sun itself. Cezary smiled in triumph as he got exactly what he hoped for: a reflection of the light against the scope of his enemy's rifle. He immediately jumped to his feet and dashed toward the animal trail. Thanks to the flash, he was completely night blind, but he knew his enemy was, too. Now as the perfect time to move freely. When he reached the beaten-down grass he immediately slowed to a stop, and waited patiently for his eyes to readjust to the darkness. The imperial had to know that his position was compromised, and would probably try to move, but it didn't matter, there were only two places he could logically go from where he was, meaning that Cezary had the advantage of knowing where to expect him to show up. If he could just stay on his feet a little longer...

Once his vision returned he slunk around the corner slowly, and caught a glimpse of the profile of his enemy. The imperial's eyes were set ahead of him, still looking in the area where the grenade had originated. He hadn't even conceived that the man he was searching for was less than a hundred yards away.

Without a styptic to stop the bleeding, Cezary couldn't stop the blood from his head wound blinding his right eye, but that wasn't a significant problem. He could shoot just as well from his left side. He knelt, bringing his rifle to his shoulder and training his left eye on the sight. He aimed for the other sniper's neck, and let his left hand somewhat fumble its way to the trigger.

There was a moment of serene satisfaction, a feeling a pragmatist like him only rarely experienced. Indeed, was there any euphoria more succulent that winning a sniper duel? The ability to turn the hunter into the hunted, to kill without your presence being felt. As much as he felt forced into the life of a soldier, he had to admit he felt right at home with the duty of a sniper.

"So... how does it feel to be the prey?" He asked his opponent as his finger squeezed the trigger.

* * *

The camp was now only a few hundred feet away. He could still see the fire that served as its center. Once the adrenaline rush of fighting for his life had faded away, his body had become so leaden that he could only barely move it. His legs felt like blocks of ice, and the world seemed to swirl about him, making it difficult for him to keep his bearings. His arms had lost most of their strength, to the point where he could no longer support the weight of his rifle, and it dragged heavily against the ground.

"this... sucks..." He muttered, but his voice sounded distant, as though it were coming from someone else entirely. Just a few more steps to go. He was almost home. He lifted his leg with all the strength he could muster, forced it forward, set it down, and then did the same with his other leg. It was as if he had to force his body to remember how to walk again. Finally, he passed the sandbag line that served as the border for the Gallian camp, and there reached the end of his endurance. His eyes fluttered weakly as his body fell forward... yet to his surprise he didn't hit the ground.

Something... (was it an arm?) had wrapped around his torso as he fell and pulled him closer. He suddenly felt so intensely warm... the warmth of a human body, which he had been deprived of for so long that it felt completely alien to him. He tried to force his eyes to focus on the person who had caught him, and though he failed, he thought he could make out the image of Nadine.

"Darcsen... you're up late..." He muttered, his words stuttered with the intense cold that had consumed his body, and his mind was so foggy that he could barely hear what came out of his mouth.

"You didn't make it back in time, I was worried." Nadine replied, pulling him toward the camp. "You're bleeding badly, we need to get you treated. Medic! Medic, wake up, please!"

Cezary didn't hear a word of this. His world was starting to be swallowed by darkness, and his mind had already slipped into delirium.

"Listen, Darcsen... whatever you think, we're even now... we're more than even now... so you should stop... I need you to stop..."the last syllable of the final word had barely escaped his lips before his consciousness was completely overtaken by the darkness.

* * *

"The only person in this whole war that I care about is myself. I'll do whatever it takes to stay alive." Cezary's thoughts returned to him after what felt like an eternity. Had he been dreaming?

"I didn't join the militia to earn the gratitude of my comrades. I didn't do it to earn the gratitude of my kingdom, and I sure as hell didn't do it to earn the gratitude of some oily dark-hair..." He opened his eyes at this thought. He was laying in a medical cot, to one side of him was squad seven's medic, to the other was Nadine. He was still in a haze, but he could tell he was recovering now, and not degrading... somehow or another he was going to live to fight another day. Nadine said something, but he couldn't really hear her. He was already drifting back to sleep. After she finished, he noticed that she was crying.

"You? Crying over me? How... strange..." He managed to say this aloud, at least he was relatively positive he did, before finally returning to sleep's warm embrace.

"No, I didn't join the militia for any of those reasons... but if I happen to accomplish them over the course of looking out for myself... Maybe it's not so bad, after all."


End file.
